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Simulation and Analysis of Stand-alone Photovoltaic System with Boost

Converter using MATLAB/Simulink

Conference Paper · March 2014

DOI: 10.1109/ICCPCT.2014.7054991

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 Simulation and Analysis of Stand-alone Photovoltaic
System with Boost Converter using
MATLAB/Simulink
Mr. S. Sheik Mohammed Dr. D. Devaraj
College of Engineering, Senior Professor,
Dhofar University, PB. No. 2509 Kalasalingam University,
Salalah, Sultanate of Oman Srivilliputhur, Tamilnadu, India
E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract— Use of renewable energy and in particular solar MATLAB/Simulink [5]. Matlab program based PV module is
energy has brought significant attention over the past decades. presented in [6].
Photovoltaic (PV) power generation projects are implemented in The MATLAB/Simulink based model of PV module is
very large number in many countries. Many research works are presented in this paper. The model presented in [5] is further
carried out to analyze and validate the performance of PV
modules. Implementation of experimental set up for PV based
enhanced by creating a subsystem and dialog box based on
power system with DC-DC converter to validate the performance [7]. The dialog box allows the user to enter the important input
of the system is not always possible due to practical constraints. parameters required for analysis. This model can be used as a
Software based simulation model helps to analyze the common system to analyze the performance of any
performance of PV and a common circuit based model which commercial PV modules by entering the required parameters.
could be used for validating any commercial PV module will be This paper also focuses on design of DC-DC boost
more helpful. Simulation of mathematical model for Photovoltaic converter and integration of DC-DC boost converter with PV
(PV) module and DC-DC boost converter is presented in this Module. DC-DC Boost converter is designed and simulated
paper. The model presented in this paper can be used as a
using MATLAB. The input and output of the converter are
generalized PV module to analyze the performance of any
commercially available PV modules. I-V characteristics and P-V
obtained from simulation under open loop condition with
characteristics of PV module under different temperature and constant DC input supply. Further, the outputs are taken from
irradiation level can be obtained using the model. The design of the converter by feeding the output of PV module as input to it.
DC-DC boost converter is also discussed in detail. Simulation of
DC-DC converter is performed and the results are obtained from II. CIRCUIT MODEL OF PV MODULE
constant DC supply fed converter and PV fed converter.
The voltage and current generated by a single PV cell is
Index Terms— DC-DC Boost converter, MATLAB/Simulink, very low. So, solar cells are interconnected in a series-parallel
Modeling, Photovoltaic, Simulation, Solar power. combination to achieve the desired power. Desired voltage is
generated by connecting the solar cells in series and the
desired current is generated by connecting the cells in parallel.
I. INTRODUCTION The series connection of cells known as PV modules usually
Photovoltaic (PV) modules are used to generate electricity has 28, 36 or 54 cells in it and array is the parallel connection
from light. When sunlight falls on the PV modules, it converts of modules.
sun light into DC electricity. Apart from the advantages of The equivalent circuit of an ideal PV cell consists of a
renewable energy sources, the PV based power generation has current source and a diode connected in anti-parallel with it[7-
few more added advantages. The PV based system has no 9]. A general model of the solar cell is the combination of
wear and tear which results in less maintenance. The PV based current source (Ipv) connected in anti-parallel to a diode ‘D’,
systems are employed in stand- alone applications such as series resistance (Rse) and parallel resistance (Rp). Fig.1
street lighting, water pumping and also accommodated in grid shows the general model of solar cell.
connected systems. The PV system has non linear I-V and P-V characteristics.
A circuit based system model of PV modules helps to The two main factors which affect the output of PV system are
analyze the performance of commercial PV modules. temperature and irradiation level. The change of temperature
Modeling of photovoltaic modules or arrays is presented in and irradiation level results in change of voltage and current
various papers. Simple circuit based PV models are proposed generated by PV system. The nominal operating condition of
in [1-2]. The methods of adjusting I-V characteristics of the the solar module is 250C temperature, 1000 W/m2 (G=1)
model using Artificial Intelligence is presented in [3-4]. The irradiation at AM of 1.5.
model of PV module based on the circuit model and its I-V and P-V characteristics of PV cell are shown in Fig. 2.
mathematical equation using basic blocks is developed in Open circuit voltage (Voc) is the maximum voltage a cell can
generate under open circuit condition at I=0 and the short where, Is is the saturation or leakage current of the
circuit current (ISC) is the current corresponds to short circuit diode, q is the electron charge [1.60 x 10-19 oC], k is the
at V=0. Through the operation, the PV cell generates Boltzmann constant [1.38x10-23J/K], and A is the ideality
maximum power at only one point and this point is called as factor of diode. The values of k and Tc should be taken into
Maximum Power Point (MPP). account with same unit as either in oC or in oK. The diode
ideality factor ‘A’ differs with respect to PV technology
adopted [11]. Mono crystalline Si and the poly crystalline Si
are most commonly used to technologies to produce PV
modules. The ideality factors of those PV technologies are 1.2
and 1.3 respectively. The ideality factor of other technologies
is also listed in [11].
Based on the general model, the equation for the output
current of solar cell can be defined as

Fig.1 General Model of solar cell I = I pv − I d − I p (4)

Im, Vm and Pm in the graph are maximum current,

maximum voltage and the maximum power of the solar cell ⎧⎪ ⎛ q ⎞ ⎫⎪ V + IRse
respectively.
I = I pv − I s ⎨exp⎜⎜ V + IRse ⎟⎟ − 1⎬ −
⎪⎩ ⎝ AkTc N s ⎠ ⎪⎭ Rp

(5)
The value of parallel resistor ‘Rp’ in equation (5) is
extremely high and it is generally neglected for analysis of
PV. The equivalent circuit of PV without Rp is the called as
the simplified model. The appropriate model of solar cell [11]
is shown in fig 3. Based on the appropriate model, the output
current defined in equation (5) is re-written as

⎧ ⎛ qV ⎞ ⎫
I = I pv − I s ⎨exp⎜⎜ + IRse ⎟⎟ − 1⎬ (6)
⎩ ⎝ AkTc ⎠ ⎭
Fig. 2 . I-V and P-V Characteristics of Solar Cell

The mathematical equation for output current of ideal cell is

[8-10].
I = I pv − I d (1)
where, Ipv is the light generated current which is directly
proportional to the solar irradiation and Id is the Shockley
equation. The light generated current of the solar cell is
mainly depends on the solar irradiation level and its working
temperature, which is expressed as
Fig.3 Appropriate model of solar cell

I pv = [I sc + K I (Tc − Tr )] ⋅ G (2)
The solar cells must be connected in series-parallel
where, Isc is the short-circuit current of cell at 25°C combination to obtain the desired output power. The
temperature and G=1, KI is the short-circuit current mathematical equation for the PV array of the simplified
temperature co-efficient of cell, Tc and Tr are the operating model with (Ns) number of modules connected in series and
temperature of cell and reference temperature respectively. (Np) number of modules connected in parallel can be described
The temperatures are in oK. as
⎧⎪ ⎛ qV IR ⎞ ⎫⎪
The Shockley equation can be expressed as I = I pv N p − I s N p ⎨exp⎜ + se ⎟ − 1⎬ (7)
⎪⎩ ⎜⎝ AkTc N s N p ⎟⎠ ⎪⎭
⎧⎪ ⎛ q ⎞ ⎫⎪
I d = I s ⎨exp⎜⎜ ⎟⎟ − 1⎬ (3)
The diode saturation current of the cell varies with the
⎪⎩ ⎝ AkTc ⎠ ⎪⎭ cell temperature, which is expressed in [10] as,
 Po = Pin ⇒ Vo I o = Vin I in (11)
3
⎛T ⎞ ⎡ qE ⎛ 1 1 ⎞⎤
I s = I rs ⎜⎜ c ⎟⎟ exp⎢ g ⎜⎜ − ⎟⎟⎥ (8) The inductor value and the capacitor value are calculated
⎝ Tr ⎠ ⎣ Ak ⎝ Tc Tr ⎠⎦ using the formulas given in [14]
A. Selection of Inductor:
where, Irs is the reverse saturation current of a cell at a
reference temperature and a solar irradiation, Eg is the band The inductor value of the Boost converter are calculated
gap energy of the semiconductor used in the cell. Eg is using
approximately equal to 1.12 eV for the polycrystalline Si at 25 Vin
o
C [12-13]. Using equation (9), the reverse saturation current L= D (12)
of a cell Irs at reference temperature of 250C can be calculated. ( f s ΔI L )
Where fs is the switching frequency and ΔI L is the input
I sc current ripple. Current ripple factor (CRF) is the ratio between
I rs = (9)
input current ripple and output current. For good estimation
⎛ q ⎞
exp⎜ Voc ⎟ − 1 of inductor value CRF should bound within 30%. i.e.,
⎜ AkT N ⎟
⎝ c (n ) s ⎠
ΔI L
= 0.3 (13)
III. DC-DC BOOST CONVERTER MODELING Io
DC-DC converters are used in PV systems to regulate the The current rating of inductor should be always higher than
voltage generated by the PV modules. DC-DC boost that of the maximum output current.
converters are used in grid connected applications to step up
the module voltage. The circuit diagram of DC-DC boost
converter is shown in fig 4. B. Selection of Capacitor

The capacitor value can be obtained from

I out
C= D (14)
( f s ΔVo )

Where ΔVo is the output voltage ripple which is usually

considered as 5% of output voltage which yields

ΔVo
= 5% (15)
Fig. 4 DC-DC Boost Converter Vo
The DC-DC boost converter circuit consists of Inductor (L),
Diode (D), Capacitor (C), load resistor (RL), the control switch The DC-DC boost converter is designed for Vin = 16V ,
(S). These components are connected in such a way with the Vout = 24V , I out = 2.5 A, and the switching frequency fs is
input voltage source (Vin) so as to step up the voltage.
considered as 20kHz. Using these values the components
The output voltage of the boost converter depends on the
duty cycle of the control switch. So, the output voltage can be values are calculated as follows L=355µH, C=35µF and
varied by varying the ON time of the switch. Thus, for the RL=10Ω.
duty cycle “D” the average output voltage can be calculated
using IV. SIMULATION RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Vo 1 A. Simulation of PV Module
= (10)
Vin (1 − D) The complete model of the PV module simulated using
MATLAB/Simulink is shown in fig 5.The subsystem of the
where Vin, Vo are the input and output voltage of the complete model, the subsystem for light generated current (Ipv),
converter respectively and D is the duty cycle of the control saturation current (Is) and Shockley Equation (Id) inside the
switch. In an ideal circuit, the output power of the converter is main subsystem are shown in fig 6 (a). The dialog box for main
equal to input power which yields. subsystem mask is shown in fig 6(b). The model is developed
based on Equation (7).
 Fig. 6(a) Subsystems of the proposed system

Fig. 5 Simulink Model of proposed system

Solarex MSX60 PV module is chosen for validating the

model. The maximum output power of MSX 60 is 60W. The
important parameters required for simulating the model are
taken from the manufacturer datasheet [15].

Fig 6(b). Subsystem mask dialog box

I-V Characteristics of MSX60 PV Module

5

G=1
Module Current (Ipv)

G=0.75
3

G=0.5
2
G=0.25
1

0
0 5 10 15 20
Module Voltage (Vpv)
Fig 7(a) I-V characteristics of MSX 60 at different irradiation level and
constant temperature (Tc=250C)

Fig 7(a), 7(b) shows the I-V and P-V characteristics curves
of MSX 60 module obtained from the simulation under various
irradiation levels and Fig 8(a), 8(b) shows the I-V and P-V The module 54 series connected poly-crystalline cells. The
curves under different level of temperatures. open circuit voltage (Voc) is 32.9V and short circuit current
(Isc) is 8.1 A. The peak power of the module is 200W at
70
P-V Characteristics of MSX 60 Module Maximum power voltage (Vmp) of 26.3V [16].
G=1
60

50
Module Power (Ppv)

G=0.75

40

G=0.5
30

20
G=0.25

10

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22
Module Voltage (Vpv)

Fig. 9(a). Typical I-V Characteristics of GEPVp-200-M Module under various

Fig 7(b) P-V characteristics of MSX 60 at different irradiation level and
conditions.
constant temperature (Tc=250C)

I-V Characteristics of MSX 60 Module The typical I-V characteristics of GEPVp-200-M Module
at Tc=250C and G= 1000 W/m2, Tc=450C and G= 800 W/m2
Tc=25 Degrees
4 and at Tc=600C, G= 1000 W/m2 presented in the data sheet.
Fig. 9(a) shows graph presented in the data sheet[16]. The
M o d u l e C u rre n t (Ip v )

Tc=50 Degrees
3 model is simulated for the same condition and the results
Tc=75 Degrees generated. The simulation results shown in Fig. 9 (b) are well
matched the graph provided in datasheet. Hence, the proposed
2
Tc=100 Degrees model can be used as common platform to analyze the
performance of any PV Module.
1
I-V Characterstics of GEPVp-200-M Module
0
10 15 20 0 5 8
Module Voltage (Vpv)
M o d u le Cu rren t (Ip v)

Fig 8(a). I-V characteristics of MSX 60 at different temperature and constant 6

irradiation level (G=1) Tc=25 Degrees
G=1
P-V Characteristics of MSX 60 Module 4
Tc=60 Degrees
Tc=25 Degrees G=1
60 2
M o d u l e P o w e r (P p v )

Tc=50 Degrees
Tc=45 Degrees
Tc=75 Degrees G=0.8
Tc=100 Degrees 0
40 15 0 520 1025 30 35
Module Voltage (Vpv)
Fig. 9(b). Simulation results GEPVp-200-M Module under various conditions
20
B. Simulation of DC-DC Boost Converter
0
0 5 10 15 20 The boost converter is simulated using MATLAB/Simulink.
Module Voltage (Vpv) The results obtained from the Boost converter are presented.
Fig 8(b) P-V characteristics of MSX 60 at different temperature and constant The open loop simulation performed with the input voltage of
irradiation level (G=1) 16V for the duty cycle D=0.33. Fig 10 shows the simulation
circuit of designed boost converter. The PWM pulse
The outputs obtained from the model has very close generation and the control pulse for the switch are as shown in
match with the data provided by the datasheet for both I-V Fig.11.
characteristics and P-V characteristics of MSX 60.
To study the reliability and accuracy of the developed
model, the model is further simulated for GEPVp-200-M
Module. GEPVp-200-M Module is a product of GE Energy.
 Fig. 12(b) Output Voltage of Boost Converter constant DC input supply

Fig.10 DC-DC Boost Converter simulation circuit

Fig. 12 (c) Output current of Boost Converter constant DC input supply

Fig.11 PWM Pulse generation

Fig.12(a) shows the waveform of input voltage of boost

converter. The output voltage and output current of the boost
converter at constant input voltage are presented in Fig.12(b)
and Fig.12(c) respectively. The output voltage and current
approaches the desired values. The boost converter and the PV
module are integrated for analysis as shown in Fig.13.
The DC-DC boost converter is fed by the PV Module. The
input voltage of boost converter shown in fig 14(a) is the
output of PV module. The output voltage and current
waveforms obtained from the PV fed boost converter are
Fig.13. PV fed DC-DC Boost converter
depicted in Fig.14(b).

Fig. 14 (a) Input voltage of PV fed converter

Fig. 12(a) Input Voltage of DC-DC Boost Converter
 V. CONCLUSION

A circuit based system model of PV modules helps to

analyze the performance of commercial PV modules. A
general model of PV module is developed using commonly
used blocks in the form of masked subsystem block. I-V and
P-V characteristics outputs are generated for MSX 60 PV
module under different irradiation and different temperature
levels and the model is simulated for GEPVp-200-M Module
under various conditions as presented in the data sheet. The
results obtained from the simulation shows excellent matching
with the characteristics graphs provided in the data sheet of
the selected models. Thus, the model can be used to analyze
the performance of any commercial PV module.
The DC-DC boost converter is also simulated and the
results are obtained from the converter with constant DC input
Fig. 14 (b) Output voltage and current waveform of PV fed converter supply and by interconnecting the PV module with it. The
results shows close match between the output of converter
The model is simulated under constant cell with constant DC input and the PV fed converter. The output
temperature of Tc=250C and different irradiation level and the voltage and current of the PV fed DC-DC boost converter
output of the PV module model is fed into the converter. The obtained for change of irradiation levels at constant
irradiation level has changes from 1 to 0.75 at t=0.015 and at temperature is also presented.
t=0.030 the irradiation decreased from 0.75 to 0.5 as shown in
Fig. 15. The voltage and current of the boost converter under
these conditions is presented in Fig. 16. The boost converter is REFERENCES
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system,” Proceedings of 29th annual IEEE Power Electronics more than 7 years of experience in teaching. He received his
M.E, in Power Electronics and Drives from Bannari Amman
Specialists Conference, vol. 1, 1998, pp. 86-93
Inst. of Tech, Tamilnadu, India. He has published many papers
[12] W. De Soto, S. A. Klein, and W. A. Beckman” Improvement in Int. Journals and Conferences. He is currently pursuing his
and validation of a model for photovoltaic array performance” Solar PhD in the area of solar power converters.
Energy, 80(1):78–88, January 2006.
Dr. D. Devaraj is Sr. Professor & Head of Computer Science
[13] GeoffWalker.” Evaluating MPPT converter topologies using a and Engineering in Kalasalingam University, Srivilliputhur,
Matlab PV model” Journal of Electrical & Electronics Engineering, India. He is having more than 18 years of teaching and
Australia, 21(1), 2001. research experience. He has received M.E. degree in Power
[14] Brigitte Hauke, “Basic Calculation of a Boost Converter's System Engineering from Thiagarajar College of Engg.,
Power Stage” Application Report , SLVA372B–November 2009– Madurai, India in 1994. He obtained PhD in Electrical
Revised July 2010 Engineering from IIT Madras, Chennai, India in the year 2001. He has
published more than 20 papers in National and Int. Journals, more than 60
[15] Solarex MSX60/64 datasheet. Available online at: papers in National and Int. conferences. His current research interest includes
http://www.californiasolarcenter.org/newssh/pdfs/Solarex- Power system security, Power System Optimization, Power Quality,
MSX64.pdf Intelligent Control and Evolutionary Computing.
[16] GEPVp-200 PV Module Data sheet. Available online at:
http://www.altestore.com/store/Solar-Panels/150-Watts-Up-Solar-
Panels/GEPVp-200-200W-18V-Solar-Panel/p3843/

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